DENVER  DNA will be pivotal in the case against John Mark Karr in the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, but it's not the only physical evidence that could help determine his guilt or innocence.

Absent a match from Karr's DNA with a small sample taken from the 6-year-old girl's underwear, prosecutors will rely on other evidence besides his public statement in Thailand last week that he was with JonBenet when she died at her home in Boulder, Colo. That evidence includes:

• An unidentified palm print left on the door to the basement wine cellar where JonBenet's body was found on Dec. 26, 1996.

• A partial boot print found in the basement.

• Hair and fibers taken from JonBenet's body that did not come from family members or fabrics in the Ramsey home.

• The 2 1/2-page ransom note found in the house.

Legal analysts say Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy and her investigators probably have other evidence linking him to the crime that is not publicly known.

"He's given them something other than the confession," says Craig Silverman, a former Denver prosecutor. "It might be a picture, or information about the ransom note" or evidence he was in Boulder at the time of the killing.

"He obviously has some insider information, or the district attorney's office wouldn't have gone through the exercise of bringing him back" from Thailand, Denver defense lawyer Scott Robinson says.

Larry Pozner, another Denver defense attorney, says that if no DNA link is proved, prosecutors must have evidence placing Karr in Boulder and at the crime scene.

"We go to bed starving for a fact that shows John Karr was there, and we wake up the next morning hungry," Pozner says. "We are not being fed any facts that indicate guilt," such as credit card records showing Karr traveled to Boulder.

Karr's second ex-wife has said she cannot remember a Christmas in the mid-1990s when he wasn't with the family in Alabama.

"Christmas is memorable," Pozner says. "There is no motivation for his ex-wife, who hates him, to say, 'He was here with me and the kids.' ... The prosecution needs a silver bullet. They need his palm print, they need him taking something out of the house and keeping it. They need a lot of facts."

Karr, being held without bond in Los Angeles, is likely to be flown to Colorado within a few days. Prosecutors will quickly get samples from him: DNA, fingerprints, a palm print and a handwriting sample to test for a match with the ransom note, says Bob Grant, a former Adams County, Colo., district attorney who assisted in the criminal investigation from 1997 to 1999.

A handwriting analysis that finds similarities could help bring a conviction, Silverman says. "I'm not saying he should be convicted on the basis of handwriting analysis alone, but Lord knows I've used it to put people in prison as part of a case."

A possible link to the ransom note was suggested by the parents of Karr's first wife, who told the Associated Press they had discovered letters the suspect wrote to their daughter. They were signed "S.B.T.C.," initials that also were written on the ransom note.

The DNA taken from JonBenet's underwear is paramount, Grant says. Tests conducted on the sample in the late 1990s showed it contained DNA from both the victim and another person, probably a male who was not a member of the Ramsey family, he says.

"That DNA has to be explained in some way," Grant says. "I don't think they have a case without an explanation of where that foreign DNA came from. If it doesn't match him, they have a very, very tough case to prove."

Silverman agrees: "If it's a miss, that's a big problem for the prosecution. If it's a match, that's game, set and match for the state."